If you are doing Irish research on Catholic ancestors in Ireland, you may want to definitely take a look at some recently released free online database of Catholic Parishes in Ireland. Data contained in this database can go back as far as the 1740s and continues through around the 1880’s. The data is free through the National Library of Ireland. You don’t need to register to access it.

Here is a quote from Dick Eastman’s blog post about the topic back on July 8, 2015:

The National Library of Ireland in Dublin today (Wednesday) has placed the entire collection of Catholic parish register microfilms held by the National Library of Ireland (NLI) online. Involved are over 370,000 digital images of the microfilm reels on which the parish registers are recorded and which will be accessible free of charge.

These parish register records are considered the single most important source of information on Irish family history prior to the 1901 Census. Dating from the 1740s to the 1880s, they cover 1,086 parishes throughout the island of Ireland, and consist primarily of baptismal and marriage records. The NLI has been working to digitise the microfilms for over three years under what is had described as its most ambitious digitisation programme to date.

The parish registers provide evidence of direct links between one generation and the next (via baptismal registers) and one family and another (via marriage registers). The NLI holds copies of the registers for most Roman Catholic parishes in Ireland (including the counties of Northern Ireland) up to 1880. These registers consist primarily of baptism and marriage records.

WOW! If you are doing Irish research on Roman Catholic ancestors it sure looks like you have struck a gold mine to access these Catholic Parish records images online and for free. Use the above link to get access to the site at the National Library of Ireland and the images.

Please note. The data is just the images of generally Births and Marriages, some going back to the 1740s. This means that you will not be able to do an indexed search of the names of your ancestors within the data. To make this data more meaningful to you it would help greatly that you have localized a location in Ireland of your ancestors and then determine the Parish associated with the area. You can simply input the parish name into the search box if you know the name.

There are 1,142 Parishes in the data. You can click your way through some maps at the site if you know that general location of your ancestors in Ireland based on the map and then click down even further to see the Parishes included. If you think you are in the right geographic area you can then click on the Parish you may want to explore. This is the best way to find an approximate parish of an ancestor if you know a general geographic area in which they lived. The general clickable maps are a great resource and really make it easy for you to get to the Parish of possibility without having to know the name of the Parish.

When you click on a Parish name from within the map you will be taken to a part of the site that gives you some microfilm information about the records e.g. Parish Name within the County Name, Microfilm Number, Number of images, Dates of the records included, other suggested resources to look at. If you click on the image of the film you will gain access to the images to view. You can magnify, download, print, increase brightness, decrease brightness, increase contrast and many other tools to help you navigate and improve the readability of the image.

Like any other microfilm, you will be at the mercy of the handwriting itself from the original document. But at least you will not be dealing with a foreign language of document images if English is your language! I clicked through some and yes some may be easier to read than others. But that is research! Sometimes your ancestors are just jumping off the page at you with very readable writing. Sometimes, they are saying “not so easy buddy, work a little harder!”.

Remember that you are not using the resource with a searchbox for a name search. You are using the resource as an online microfilm reader with the ability to select the specific parish of interest and its records. This is valuable “free” data that can be of great importance to you in your research even if you have to look at the data as just images. I guarantee if you make that magic discovery of an ancestor you will be doing a “happy dance” plus you will have really sharpened your own research skills when accessing non-indexed data.

Check out this valuable resource for your Irish Catholic research. You won’t be sorry.

I just want to let you know that a new episode for “Who Do You Think You Are?” will be airing on the cable channel TLC on Sunday evening, August 2, 2015, at 8 PM Central time.

The new episode for this new season will feature author J. K. Rowling.

You can see an “encore” presentation at 7 PM of the episode featuring Ginnifer Goodwin that previously aired on July 26, 2015.

Previously, when the show was on NBC, they dedicated a portion of their website to the show so that you could always get updates on the show. TLC appears to be doing the same for this show as it unfolds during this season. You can find the information for the show on TLC at:

TLC is actually making available a few of the previously aired shows in their full run time at the TLC site. So you can actually watch some full episodes without having to go to iTunes to make purchases of previously aired shows.

Make sure you mark down the date and time and plan to watch the “new” episode in its original airing rather than at a later time if you can. (Ratings are important for continuity of this wonderful show!) Last year if you did not watch the original airing or did not DVR the show, your alternative was to purchase a copy from iTunes to catch up on shows missed and not recorded by yourself.

Now is the time to get the buzz going and to reconnect with some TV help and entertainment to motivate you in your own genealogical research efforts.

Mark your calendar for Sunday evening, August 2, 2015 at 8 PM Central Time on TLC on cable and see what has been discovered about author J. K. Rowling.

Just a reminder to all of you that are personally subscribed to Ancestry.com’s “All Access” subscription. This subscription gives you access to all of the data at Ancestry.com in addition to providing you access to Newspapers.com, Fold3.com and Ancestry Academy.

With “All Access” you have access to additional searchable databases such as Newspapers.com and Fold3.com.

Do not forget that you also have access to Ancestry Academy, a wonderful online video learning experience. These online tutorials are tremendous learning tools on an incredible amount of varied genealogical topics. Plus, if you have already subscribed as an “All Access” customer, you have in essence already paid for these so why not take advantage of all that is there.

I just today received an email from Ancestry Academy letting me know that there are now 4 more new courses you can view online.

New courses noted as of today are:

“Mysteries of Manuscripts” taught by Pamela Boyer Sayre

“Tracing French-Canadian Ancestors and Telling Their Stories” taught by David Ouimette

Ancestry Academy currently has 5 featured programs. In addition, there are 23 other programs among four different subjects for you to choose from.

Ancestry Academy also indicates that there are 9 more courses currently in development.

These are polished programs led by very knowledgeable individuals with great presentation skills. Each course is broken down by topics within the overall presentation. You can start viewing at the beginning and the subsequent topics will start automatically after completion of the previous topic.

Each topic within the multi-part program may run 3 to 12 minutes. The overall time for any program is targeted to be about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes.

You can even take a test after completion of what you viewed to judge your understanding and retention of what was shown!

Don’t leave a paid for resource on the table with your “All Access” subscription to Ancestry.com. These are wonderful learning tools that can help you become a better genealogist in all aspects of your research. They are insightful, full of great tips and very well presented in a professional studio atmosphere.

There are some completely “free” Ancestry Academy courses available for Ancestry.com subscribers that do not have a “Full Access” subscription. You must have some kind of subscription with Ancestry to access this material. These are clearly marked for anyone to access from Ancestry Academy. With the “Full Access” subscription you gain access to ALL of the courses.

I just want to let you know that the new season for “Who Do You Think You Are?” will be starting on the cable channel TLC on Sunday evening, July 26, 2015, at 8 PM Central time.

Previously, when the show was on NBC, they dedicated a portion of their website to the show so that you could always get updates on the show. TLC appears to be doing the same for this show as it unfolds during this season. You can find the information for the show on TLC at:

TLC is actually making available a few of the previously aired shows in their full run time at the TLC site. So you can actually watch some full episodes without having to go to iTunes to make purchases of previously aired shows.

The “premier” episode for this new season will feature actress Ginnifer Goodwin.

Preceding the “premier” episode, you will be able to watch a mini-marathon of previously aired episodes of “Who Do You Think You Are?”. Here is that list of consecutive shows and the “star” featured in the episode for the afternoon and evening of July 26, 2015:

Josh Groban at 4 PM Central Time

Julie Chen at 5 PM Central Time

Rachel McAdams at 6 PM Central Time

Sean Hayes at 7 PM Central Time

Ginnifer Goodwin (Premier) at 8 PM Central Time

Make sure you mark down the date and time and plan to watch the “premier” episode in its original airing rather than at a later time if you can. (Ratings are important for continuity of this wonderful show!) Last year if you did not watch the original airing or did not DVR the show, your alternative was to purchase a copy from iTunes to catch up on shows missed and not recorded by yourself.

Now is the time to get the buzz going and to reconnect with some TV help and entertainment to motivate you in your own genealogical research efforts.

Mark your calendar for Sunday evening, July 26, 2015 at 8 PM Central Time on TLC on cable and see what has been discovered about actress Ginnifer Goodwin.

One of my library colleagues who is also a participant at our monthly genealogy programs gave me a paper copy of a nice handout she obtained that identifies some key “Chicago” Family History Research Sites.

The brochure was put together by the Chicago Genealogical Society that can be reached online at:

It is a simple little brochure that identifies the following locations in Chicago, IL that genealogy researchers should become aware of as possible resources for their genealogical research. Locations mentioned are:

Harold Washington Library Center (Downtown Chicago)

Office of the Cook County Clerk (Downtown Chicago)

Office of the Cook County Recorder of Deeds (Downtown Chicago)

Archives of the Clerk of the Cook County Court (Downtown Chicago)

Newberry Library (Near North Side of Chicago)

Chicago History Museum (Near North Side of Chicago)

Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD), Cook County (Far North Side of Chicago)

All of the details for each of the locations noted above are contained in the PDF Brochure Link above.

This simple 2 page guide can be a very nice reminder of locations in Chicago that can be of help to you in any Chicago specific ancestral research you may be doing.

Check it out.

Print it off. (If you print it, set your view to “landscape” rather than “portrait”.)

I just received an updated brochure/guide from the Northwest Suburban Genealogy Society (NWSGS).

Please know that this society was formerly known by the name Northwest Suburban Council of Genealogists. They renamed themselves as of August 1, 2014.

Their recently updated brochure contains information about the society, membership benefits, meeting location, programs they will offer during their upcoming 2015-2016 “season” and membership application.

Here is the newly updated NWSGS brochure for the society that includes their 2015-2016 programs:

Please take a look at the above link to the PDF for the information. Print it off and mark the dates for the programs that interest you the most. Give the society a try and check out one of their programs. Better yet, consider becoming a member of the society. A membership application is also included as part of the brochure that you can access through the above link to the PDF.

This is the time of the year when a lot of dated information about upcoming programs that start in September becomes available. Check them out.

You can also visit the society webpage itself to find out more about the society, its resources and its programs. You can visit them at the following link at:

I just noticed in one of the publicity newsletters sent to me by the Swedish American Museum, that the Nordic Family Genealogy Center has changed its name to the Swedish American Genealogical Society.

Here is the text from the Swedish American Museum about the news:

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Genealogy Center Changes Name to Swedish American Genealogical Society

The Nordic Family Genealogy Center at the Swedish American Museum is changing its name to better reflect the kind of help they can offer to those seeking to uncover their family’s roots. The group will now be known as the Swedish American Genealogical Society.

The Genealogical Society will continue to offer monthly sessions on a number of topics of interest to those looking into their family history, as well as weekly one-on-one assistance on Wednesdays.